Sunday, September 28, 2014

Book Review: Abraham by Charles R. Swindoll

Abraham is a book about the nomad Abraham’s life from the Bible. From his journey to another place he wasn’t familiar with, his relationship with his wife Sarah, his sons, and most importantly his relationship with G-d, the surface of the Biblical account of Abraham is cracked and a deep surface is revealed. It is shown through this book that Abraham was tested a lot to see if his faith in G-d was operating, and just how strong it was. Abraham came from a different and often immoral lifestyle that was so different than the way the new foreigners around him were living. It uncovers how G-d spent time working in his heart to be more faithful.

Abraham went deep into the story of Abraham for me, and showed me that G-d will work with us until we get his will for our lives right, as long as we are willing to try again, or keep moving. Many times I thought that G-d was highlighting things he wanted me to see as important, and telling me to reread some of them by the author prompting that.

One thing I thought could be discouraging to some people in the book (and the only thing that I had a hard time with in the book) is when it was explained that people who don’t have wonderful families are not going to end up as good marriage partners in their lives. The author explained he has seen wonderfully healthy people come from terrible families, but they are rare (page 231). I do not believe that to always be true, especially if people are really grounded in Jesus (Yeshua) and working very hard to live a G-dly lifestyle.

This book was an encouragement for me to stay faithful to G-d when tests are being put in my life, and to try again when I fail a faith test. If G-d can call Abraham from the kind of lifestyle that he was a part of and lead him to him, he can turn many more lives around to find his will for their lives as well.

My review = 4.5 out of 5 stars

Disclosure of material connection: I received a free copy of this book from Tyndale Publishing in exchange for a review.